PG: Three Game Win Streak

[DuckIII]

It’s very encouraging seeing the Passive Pair of Lauri and Patrick Lee Williams starting to flip the switch. Lauri has now strung together several games of physical aggressive play. He’s ALWAYS been valuable when he does that. Maybe it will stick.

And Patrick Lee Williams defensive activity has picked up considerably lately, though you’d still like to see him be a little more assertive offensively.

Regardless, good signs from both of them heading into a stretch run.

And last night was the first night in quite awhile Zach’s ankle looked right. When he failed to dump off that fast break to TBJ and appeared to tweak it again I about yelled at the TV.

[NecessaryEvil]

Also if lauri keeps this up off the bench, I think thad is the odd man out. We need a 3/4 hybrid to cover the other starting wing spot. Then you can run a 3 man rotation for sf/pf with Lauri/PWill/hybrid f. Vuc gets all C mins and sign theis for backup C mins, injury insurance?

Lauri is injury prone. He is the odd man out.

[Dez]

It’s very encouraging seeing the Passive Pair of Lauri and Patrick Lee Williams starting to flip the switch. Lauri has now strung together several games of physical aggressive play. He’s ALWAYS been valuable when he does that. Maybe it will stick.

And Patrick Lee Williams defensive activity has picked up considerably lately, though you’d still like to see him be a little more assertive offensively.

Regardless, good signs from both of them heading into a stretch run.

And last night was the first night in quite awhile Zach’s ankle looked right. When he failed to dump off that fast break to TBJ and appeared to tweak it again I about yelled at the TV.

It makes me irrationally angry every time you use Williams full name Duck, extremely irrationally angry.

[chitowndish]

Man that was a really fun game, awesome to see Zach have a zero point quarter and just go off dropping dimes like that. I’m just happy for that dude because for a while it’s been like he’s toiling away in this post apocalyptic basketball hellscape and he just saw hope for the first time. Really like all of the new guys and just the infusion of competence and knowing where to be and what to do with the ball once you get it and it’s like we finally have the right mix and the younger guys are starting to figure it out. I am a big believer in I guess I’d call it the critical mass of knucklehead theory where if you have too high of a percentage of young guys it can put the whole team and their development in a death spiral just because the players over time (especially young ones) start to reflect what is around them and if you have a knucklehead surrounded by more they just kind of amplify and reinforce it more. It dims the light of anything that gets close like Thad. We can talk skill sets of the new guys and how they fit but honestly a lot of it feels like we now have enough guys that already know how to play. It reinforces better behaviors and growth in the young guys we kept.

[Ice Man]

It’s very encouraging seeing the Passive Pair of Lauri and Patrick Lee Williams starting to flip the switch. Lauri has now strung together several games of physical aggressive play. He’s ALWAYS been valuable when he does that.

Yep, only good things happen when Lauri attacks the rim. I mean of course sometimes his shots get blocked and such, but it's a high percentage play. Plus he seems to be one of those guys whose entire game gets better when he makes some baskets. He defends better, rebounds better, just has more energy when he's taking it to the little fellas insides.

[Ice Man]

I am a big believer in I guess I’d call it the critical mass of knucklehead theory where if you have too high of a percentage of young guys it can put the whole team and their development in a death spiral just because the players over time (especially young ones) start to reflect what is around them and if you have a knucklehead surrounded by more they just kind of amplify and reinforce it more. It dims the light of anything that gets close like Thad. We can talk skill sets of the new guys and how they fit but honestly a lot of it feels like we now have enough guys that already know how to play. It reinforces better behaviors and growth in the young guys we kept.

I agree, wholeheartedly. Also, one of our young guys has been Coby, and his game is worth two knuckleheads. I mean no great insult like that, Colin Sexton was worse yet a couple of years back and he has settled down. Just saying that at this stage in his career you'd better surround Coby with steady players, because if you get him in there with another erratic guy or two the team will get blitzed by turnovers and defensive mistakes.

[Stratmaster]

Zach just played an elite game. His antics? He has every right to scream for fouls. For every one he screams in where he wasn't fouled there are 4 others where he was.

It's possible to be both a great player and be a whiner. See Doncic, Luka. Zach isn't quite the player that Luka is, nor is he the whiner, but he has his moments. Call him Luka Lite.

Notice that now that he is whining he is actually getting a few calls? Its the NBA. When in Rome...

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[Ice Man]

]Notice that now that he is whining he is actually getting a few calls? Its the NBA. When in Rome...

Hey, if it works.

To be clear, I don't mind if Zach carries on. That's gamesmanship, that's part of the sport. The same as when players inevitably claim that the ball didn't touch them before it went out of bounds. Let's be honest, the players lie nonstop to the referees. They lie that they didn't touch the guy on defense, they lie that they were fouled on offense, they lie about loose balls. They lie, lie, lie, lie.

So I'm not going to bite when this board gets behind our guys when they complain about calls. Not going to happen. Except with the blocking foul that was called on Thad. That call was clearly wrong.

[Stratmaster]

Watching Zach on the ball is just hilarious sometimes. Sometimes he's clearly an enigma even for his own teammates, because he plays a brand of individual basketball that doesn't always have much logic to it - half the time the other guys freeze up to watch him because they obviously don't have any idea what he's going to try next.

But other times, you know EXACTLY what he's going to do. He has this thing where he has his mind set on driving to the rack... but if he gets immediately stymied by the D, he never just moves the ball. He backs up, "surveys the floor" - and at that point, you KNOW the long step-back jumper is coming. Doesn't matter if it's being contested by four guys, he's taking that shot.

Anyway, he had a nice overall game. Zach is taking baby steps as a PnR passer, which is good to see. Still zero offensive chemistry with Vuc, though. Vucevic is a lightning quick decision maker, so there's lots of moments where he expects an automatic pass from Zach but it doesn't come. In general, our guards should be much more aware of quick entry pass opportunities now. Wendell and Gafford are gone, so everyone can actually catch the ball in traffic these days. Just throw it in the paint and relocate.

The better Lauri's playing off the bench, the smaller his minutes seem to get. That's weird. It didn't look like he was injured or anything since he moved well and had some bounce. But 18 minutes - and sitting almost all of the 3rd quarter, then playing for like 5min before getting yanked again for the rest of the game despite playing very well - is ridiculous. As chefo said, when he's being this efficient, it doesn't make sense to keep him on the bench.

Anyone can have minutes, volume and usage. That's a coaching decision. But the holy grail of the NBA is efficiency. What the Bulls should be doing us finding the upper limites for Markkanen's minutes where he can still remain efficient. Clearly he left a lot in the tank in this game.

The current starting lineup sucks at defense. That is a problem. Boucher and Siakam absolutely abused Vucevic, Thad and PWill. In particular, Toronto involved Vuc in pick and rolls as much as possible - he got dragged to the perimeter and burned time and time again. We'll see a lot of that the rest of the season, as teams know he's the weak link now as far as moving your feet.

Williams keeps getting these ridiculous entitlement minutes. Looking at the starting 5 as a whole, he should be GREAT at defense to justify playing over 30 mins. But he's not. He's become a horrid ball watcher, losing his guy and getting killed by backdoor cuts. Patrick gets props for his help defense here, but the other side of the coin is that he overhelps and loses sight of the overall developing play. That's understandable for a young player, but these are still actual flaws that hurt the team. PWill somehow found a way for being -13 in this game even though it was a laugher most of the way.

Now that the rotation has been tightened, Patrick's minutes have to come down. That is absolutely the next step in making this team play as efficiently as possibly. With only about 8 guys getting proper minutes, nobody can just "chill" out there. In particular, we're once again starting games sluggishly and falling into holes. Against these depleted teams, we've managed to claw our way up, but that's a dangerous thing to rely on.

I can't even...I'm not gonna... don't do it...you know what happens if you bite that hook.


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[Ice Man]

Boucher and Siakam absolutely abused Vucevic, Thad and PWill.

Oh, they did. They very much did. Although from my view PWill wasn't too bad, and Theis got beaten too. But the point remains. The interior defense against Boucher and Siakam looked no better, not in the least, than the much maligned interior defense of the Wendell/Gafford days.

[imagge]

Boucher and Siakam absolutely abused Vucevic, Thad and PWill.

Oh, they did. They very much did. Although from my view PWill wasn't too bad, and Theis got beaten too. But the point remains. The interior defense against Boucher and Siakam looked no better, not in the least, than the much maligned interior defense of the Wendell/Gafford days.

Except a 19-0 run and a 15-3 points to great interior defense when needed.

[DuckIII]

It’s very encouraging seeing the Passive Pair of Lauri and Patrick Lee Williams starting to flip the switch. Lauri has now strung together several games of physical aggressive play. He’s ALWAYS been valuable when he does that. Maybe it will stick.

And Patrick Lee Williams defensive activity has picked up considerably lately, though you’d still like to see him be a little more assertive offensively.

Regardless, good signs from both of them heading into a stretch run.

And last night was the first night in quite awhile Zach’s ankle looked right. When he failed to dump off that fast break to TBJ and appeared to tweak it again I about yelled at the TV.

It makes me irrationally angry every time you use Williams full name Duck, extremely irrationally angry.

I’m doing it in protest to the equally critical response I received for the various abbreviations I tried. You think I like typing his whole name out with my thumbs every time?

But I have no choice. I could call him Paw, but I hate it.

Regardless, best wishes to Patrick Lee Williams of Charlotte, North Carolina, DOB August 26, 2001, former Florida State Seminole.

[chitowndish]

I like the idea of referring to a basketball player by all 3 names it makes them sound like an assassin.

[jump]

I like the idea of referring to a basketball player by all 3 names it makes them sound like an assassin.

...Or a country western singer.

[Wingy]

Boucher and Siakam absolutely abused Vucevic, Thad and PWill.

Oh, they did. They very much did. Although from my view PWill wasn't too bad, and Theis got beaten too. But the point remains. The interior defense against Boucher and Siakam looked no better, not in the least, than the much maligned interior defense of the Wendell/Gafford days.

Nice win, and sort of comfortably (until it wasn't) with many solid contributions. Getting up fairly big due to improving chemistry, and simply having better personnel. Kinda a weird game from Zach. Gotta love the assists, but sprinkled in were a number of lazy shots, and I recall one play where he just flat out didn't put in the effort. Needs to keep minimizing those lapses if he, and the team are going to take next steps.

It was pretty harsh seeing Vuc get absolutely abused by Siakam on the drives. While there aren't a whole lot of Siakam's out there, those are the types of guys we'll have to tackle if we ever want to become a legit contender. Of course Vuc is a huge reason why we built the lead, but on the other hand, he's also a huge part of the reason why we could never put them away. We're going to need some really strong perimeter guys that can fight over screens, and minimize switches...else Vuc is getting cooked the vast majority of the time. None of this is surprising, or new news. To me, it was just the most visible display of the downsides that trade detractors highlighted coming to fruition. Up to AK to do what he said...that the work's not done.

[FranchisePlayer]

So maybe this is the right role for Lauri? He seems to do better with less pressure to become one of the main scorers. He's definitely no longer a guy that I expect to be able to create for himself. I think his skill level is still way too far from reaching that. But what he did in tonight's game I think can become sort of his norm. But, also, is it still going to cost too much to keep him? I think AK will end up extending him, but depending on Lauri's performance he's probably going to be available in any future trade talk.

Maybe his efficiency won't be sustainable but no player in his right mind at 23 will settle for 18 mins. a game when his hand is hotter than the one I put in my wife's pants in a hot night on our summer vacation.

If he even remotely keeps this level of scoring up and If I were to place a bet now... he's as good as gone.

[RoseTheFuture22]

Lauri had a klay thompson like 4 dribbles on all of his baskets tonight.

The Boucher game didn't bother me that much, there were some contested jumpers in there that you will live with so give him credit. Siakam was a real problem though. Billy will have some tough choices to make when teams go small

[DuckIII]

So maybe this is the right role for Lauri? He seems to do better with less pressure to become one of the main scorers. He's definitely no longer a guy that I expect to be able to create for himself. I think his skill level is still way too far from reaching that. But what he did in tonight's game I think can become sort of his norm. But, also, is it still going to cost too much to keep him? I think AK will end up extending him, but depending on Lauri's performance he's probably going to be available in any future trade talk.

Maybe his efficiency won't be sustainable but no player in his right mind at 23 will settle for 18 mins. a game when his hand is hotter than the one I put in my wife's pants in a hot night on our summer vacation.

If he even remotely keeps this level of scoring up and If I were to place a bet now... he's as good as gone.

It’s not really up to him unless he takes the QO. With his injury history it’s a pretty big risk. Compound that with his reduced role and even on a QO year it might be a challenge to generate market value.

On the other hand he could take the QO and then take a prove it deal. No doubt he’ll got offered that in 2022, at minimum. Players have bet on themselves before and won big.

The other possibility of course is the Bulls just don’t care and let him walk regardless. That would be a mistake though.

[chefo]

Lauri had a klay thompson like 4 dribbles on all of his baskets tonight.

The Boucher game didn't bother me that much, there were some contested jumpers in there that you will live with so give him credit. Siakam was a real problem though. Billy will have some tough choices to make when teams go small

Boucher is a good player for sure... but he has the quirkiest shot, where he gives the ball a sideways rotation when he shoots. Not quite Jo's Tornado-level crazy, but that's the only other player that I can think of that shoots sideways.

Vuc, like most big C's, doesn't like chasing 6'9 dudes outside, so there will be some nights where a hot-shooting PF masquerading as a C will make us look bad. Boucher has been throwing bricks from deep for a couple of months judging from his game log, with a random really hot night sprinkled in. So, as you said, you can live with him taking 7 3s. His 9 O-boards, on the other hand were a real problem that our coaches need to find a way to fix. We're a big team now that we have Vuc instead of WCJ. There's no reason why anybody should be able to abuse us on the D glass like that.

[Fastbrk4brkfast]

I like the idea of referring to a basketball player by all 3 names it makes them sound like an assassin.

...Or a country western singer.

Or like they're in trouble with their mom.